Actually, a trio concert with three members of the Hugo Strasser Band had been planned for the evening, but pianist Ladia Base went ill, and a concert with drums and bass only did not appear to be really attractive. So Waterson and Stevens suggested a trio concert with Barbara whom they knew from her own concerts at the "Spritz'n".
This is how it happened that Barbara played together with Waterson, drummer of the Hugo Strasser Band, for the first time. Three months later she asked him to play a duo concert with her - for her first album recording. It was July 1983, exactly 30 years ago.
In 1983 Barbara graduated school (with a very good school-leaving examination, by the way) and decided to be a professional jazz musician from now on.
She had begun to carry her Hammond around with her flame red Bedford Blitz and played concerts all over Germany. She also played electronic organs of the German Dr. Böhm company which produced organs as assembly sets for fans of electronics, and Barbara supported the instruments' development with her hints and suggestions. These instruments were an interesting theme for Henning Kriebel, the editor of the popular electronics magazine "ELO". He suggested a feature about recording a concert - and the result was Barbara's first record.
On July 9th. Barbara Dennerlein and Alan Waterson performed at the "Domicile" in Munich. The feature about the recordings with lots of microphones, an impressive mixer and professional tape recorders was issued in "ELO" in September - with Barbara on the cover.
The duo elated the audience not only with several standards but also with Barbara's own compositions. "Take Off" e.g. became the title track of her first Verve album years later, in a more elaborated version. "Eternal Voyage" was recorded again one year later for Barbara's second album "Orgelspiele", a studio album in quartet setting. The duo played also titles like "Georgia On My Mind", "Take The A-Train", "Scrapple From The Apple" or "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life". The recordings prove that Barbara loved to play up-tempo, arousing a musical storm, which gave her the nick-name "Organ Tornado".
Two days later the recordings were mixed at the Trixi Sound Studio in Munich. The recordings required almost no post-editing except the drums which had to be diminished a bit. The "ELO" informed, that the record was already available through the Dr. Böhm company.
This was 30 years ago, the company does no longer exist, and so does this source of supply. But Barbara took the remainder of stock, and for real fans of her she is willing to sell this rarity on request. Of course, a record player is required.
You can listen to a short excerpt of the album ("Take The A-Train") on this website, if you click on the "Jazz live auf der Böhm" cover photo (you have to scroll down to go there):
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